Freesat HD on Costa del Sol

Since we seem to be getting no where with the Spanish justice system - I intend to try the UK.

I think we should all consider taking UK agents to court here for mis-selling and rattle their cages - especially Parador - the chief culprits.

I have written to Parador this week demanding first my 3005 euro deposit back and threatening them to take them to court to sue them for the full amount paid on the grounds of misrepresentation. I have given them 14 days to settle this - and today got a letter of acknowledgement - which makes no difference to me.

I will first take them to the Small Claims Court over the deposit and then depending where the land lies I will follow up with a full court case for mis-selling - as I believe they had full knowledge of the situation in September/October 2005 when I bought and concealed relevant information - which they should have revealed.

This obviously is a test case  against all agents - so if anyone can provide me with any written emails or letters - sent to you from Parador that stated the ACC was legal or there were any doubts about the licences or any potential incriminating correspondence - please contact me by PM and I will give you my email address/house address to forward things on. If it comes to court I do not want to be in a situation where it is simply my word against theirs. I need any relevant correspondence in writing for other clients too. Thank you for the people that have sent me things - I am sure Parador knew that all the licences were not in place in 2005.

We are in danger of not getting anywhere fast - and I am led to believe there is allegedly more than a simple agent/developer relationship between Huma and Parador, which could mean Parador are heavily mixed up in this possible disception.

I have also written to my credit card company to demand the 3005 euros back and will attack them with Finacial Ombudsman/Small Claims Court action.

If any one can help with any information - I will appreciate it.

We have all got to find a way forward somehow.

John

 

good luck, pm sent to you.

John

From 2004 until the building stopped in Nov 2005 I believe the agents  were selling with a 'provisional license' granted by the Council. This was the 'done / acceptable' thing before the bubble burst !!

 

John

We are making an official complaint against our agent with the AIPP. I don't know whether you have seen their website aipp.org.uk . Parador are members of this body and they should have operated within their code of conduct. You can read this code on their website. 

We are complaining that our agent told us that we could make a profit of around 25% by selling before completion and tried to get us to buy more than one unit on ACC. He also said that he had sold properties to his relatives as an investment. Also he reassured us that ALL licences were in place and referred us to a solicitor attached to Huma. All of this is against the code of conduct.  The worst thing of course is that he must have known the problems that were about to happen because when we were in Spain he treated us like his new best friend, taking us out with his wife etc. and then disappeared. 

We have always been polite and restrained on forums but now we are so angry that we want to expose these greedy agents who are now operating in other countries and fleecing evern more people.

When we decided to buy our property, which was not to make money but to enjoy, we chose a big UK agent because we felt that we could trust them to look after our interests. With hindsight, we could not have done worse if we had bought from an agent using the boot of his car and handing over our money.

Parador are operating in the UK, advertising in magazines and on TV , it is time everyone knew about our situation. We have attended property exhibitions and warned people about what can happen, parador employees have threatened us with court action at these events. 

Good luck with your case.

Hi all,

I was in with my lawyer today.   like the rest of you I hve been ridden bareback.    I also went with Parador properties, whi by the way have pulled out of  Ireland.   They have agents advertising their services with 'Budget travel' Cork City...and SWS. South West Services properties, County Cork.   We are serving HUMA, Aldea, and Parador with papes giving them 10 days, then court action.

PS: Anybody contact their local radio stations and newspapers, start the ball rolling.   Any body contacted by ITN.....I have....Yipee......'I love the smell of napalm in the morning'  I look at this this way, they took out money, now hurt them back....In the pocket.   Anybody from Belfast or N.I get stung?

Les
Ireland

There has been some success on other threads on this forum, because you have been dealing with a UK company, you are able to report them to the UK consumer and Trading Standards Departments and, in the other case, they have investigated and taken action agianst them

Maybe worth a try

Hi all on this thread. I have been posting on another thread concerning the uk agents OVP. There are a lot of similarities. The info below was posted on SPI & may prove useful for you


JAIL FOR UK-BASED AGENTS WHO MISLEAD UNDER NEW LAWS
UK, regulation, laws, jail, advertising, AIPP, OFT, BTS

New laws passed by the British government have clamped down on all businesses offering goods and services for sale from the UK to better protect consumers – with property agents coming under special mention in the legislation.

The main changes centre around the potential punishment handed out to agents who deliberately mislead or unfairly coerce buyers into a sale, through newspaper, TV, radio or online advertisements. Under the new Consumer Protection Regulations (CPR), passing on materially inaccurate information about market conditions, or selling a product with the intention of the consumer acquiring it at less than favourable market conditions can be punishable by a maximum £5,000 fine or 12 months in jail.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform told OPP that while several of the restrictions already existed under the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988 (CMAR), these have been repealed by the CPRs. Previously the CMARs were only enforceable in the civil courts, where breaches of the new CPRs can be heard in a criminal court. The new laws will be enforced by the British Trading Standards (BTS) Department and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Several examples of potential agent behaviour were highlighted in the CPR document, all punishable under the new regulations, including:


An agent falsely telling a consumer that prices for new houses will be increased in seven days time, in order to pressurise him/her into making an immediate decision to buy.

An estate agent wrongly telling a consumer that he/she has recently sold several houses in the same area, just like the one the consumer is viewing, at a certain price. If this is not true and he is making the claim in order to persuade the consumer to buy at an inflated price he is in breach of the CPRs.

An agent/developer falsely telling a buyer that prices in a certain area have risen by 30% y-o-y for five years for example.


How the BTS and the OFT plan to monitor the industry and penalise agents/developers who break the new rules is uncertain, however a report spokesperson said that existing trade-bodies and associations could be used to help punish offenders.

“There are alternative well-founded and effective systems of regulation (including self-regulation) in place in the UK,” said the spokesperson. “If enforcers are satisfied that complaints and cases are clearly within the scope of these systems and can be adequately dealt with by them, they will be able to refer such complaints and cases to the relevant body (to ensure that businesses comply with the CPRs).”

Paul Owen, chief executive of the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), told OPP that this is just another nail in the coffin for misleading advertisers, agents and developers.

“This sounds like a warning shot across the bows of unscrupulous companies in the industry,” he said. “Any decent agent knows that they cannot do these things, certainly our members do as it is in our code of conduct, but this just provides buyers with an extra level of security. While this is a positive move, how they plan on implementing the new laws is another matter. We will wait and see if they have the resources and time to bring some of the dodgy operators to book on this.”

Related news
The £185bn a year real estate industry in the UK has traditionally been self-regulated by trade bodies like the NAEA but a new scheme was launched by the Office of Fair Trading to make agents more accountable. The Ombudsman for Estate Agents, the main source of redress for consumers, now covers 12,344 estate agency branches in the UK and has the power to demand compensation up to £25,000. While membership of the scheme rose 60% last year, complaints rose by 48% to 870 (with 795 cases resolved). This compares with 8,000 complaints received by the OEA in 2006.





This message was last edited by wilma on 6/20/2008.

Antojo

When did you sign up on ACC. we signed up in June 2005 I remember reading on the owners forum someone complained to the AIPP but Parador were not members at the time they signed (which was after us) so the AIPP could take no action. It may be worth checking with AIPP.

Hi is there anyone that have dealt with Andy an irish guy  who works for  a company called Villaquest ,or Ruth at Focus international ?,as we seem to be on our own and might need some back up, more the merryer most people seem to have bought through Parador.Any info welcome.

Mark t

We signed for our property in June 2004. Masa International are our agents. If you look on the AIPP website you will see that Parador are members. I telephoned yesterday and they have sent me a complaints form to complete online. 

Anyone who has bought with these agents, please don't let them get away with this any longer. the more people who complain, the more it will be recognised. We have been patient for long enough.

Trudge

We did not buy with Andy but we met him a couple of times when we were visiting ACC. He was always very positive about the building restarting. I think if this is the same person, he lives on MCC ??

John

Any news on the progress of your case yet ?

We did prepare a case with our UK solicitors - but just as we were to bring it to court - Parador UK went bust.

So ended that avenue!

hi les
just new to this forum and wondered how you got on with serving the papers to everyone involved. my mum and dad are in the same position so what do you advise them to do. they have one bg and should have two. Do you not think that the spanish government should be doing something about this as at the end of the day if the british and irish people stop going to spain or the spanish islands on holiday the spanish economy would be in trouble. So it is in their own interest to get this problem sorted out now as the british and irish will not holiday in spain. when we paid our deposits  we also paid iva which goes to the spanish government so  everything is above board the spanish government should have recieved this payment from huma so surley we should be entitled to that money back at least also at the end of the day i think that the british government should be doing everything in their power to protect the british electorate rights.

It just shows what a mockery the whole situation is

Has the EU no rules at all?

The Spanish have shown theirselves to be crooks over and over again and get away with it

Complaints to our MEP's have proved to be usel;ess, how can they sleep at night taking their fat salaries, we should expose them for their lack of action

We should not holiday there and steps should be taken to have then removed from the EU. massive protest to our Govt and media is the only way anyone on Spain may take notice

Diabolical how the British Govt have allowed us to suffer like this

Waiting forever for Court hearing

scales